Newly recruited building inspectors threaten to quit over Kalia's attitude

Annoyed at the attitude and behaviour of Jalandhar (central) MLA and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia, all the 13 newly appointed building inspectors, on Wednesday, submitted their grievances before MC commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal and reportedly threatened to quit their jobs.

Annoyed at the attitude and behaviour of Jalandhar (central) MLA and senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia, all the 13 newly appointed building inspectors, on Wednesday, submitted their grievances before MC commissioner Manpreet Singh Chhatwal and reportedly threatened to quit their jobs.

The building inspectors alleged that some of them were treated very rudely by Kalia when they were raising objections over an illegal construction going on in his area.

"How can we perform our duty, if there is so much political interference in our functioning?," they asked.

Out of a total 48 building inspectors recruited by the state local bodies department on the directions of Punjab and Haryana high court, 13 joined here in January and they had reportedly started working independently in their areas from February, but they were not being allowed to work freely, alleged sources in MC.

All the building inspectors were reportedly called by the commissioner to his office on Wednesday evening and he tried to pacify them.

Chhatwal refused to comment on the allegation of political interference leveled by inspectors. "They have some problems in the working, which I tried to sort out with mutual dialogue. All of them are pacified now," he said.

Meanwhile, Kalia denied any sort of misbehaviour or any altercation with building inspectors. "However, I strongly raised the issue of the collapse of under-construction double-storey building in the Ladhewali area on February 19 in which two labourers were injured. Being an elected representative, I have every right to question the poor performance of a government department," he said.

"Without the connivance of MC officials, one cannot raise the building up to the second floor and I simply queried the officials on it," he added.